BOULDER -- Rich Lopez, one of three Democrats seeking the District 1 seat on the Board of County Commissioners, has decided to petition his name onto the party's June primary election ballot, he said Tuesday.

Lopez is bypassing the Boulder County Democratic Party's March 24 county assembly, where candidates can advance to the primary if they get enough assembly delegates' votes.

Lopez, an attorney who lives on Left Hand Canyon Drive in unincorporated Boulder County, charged that the process of getting people to show up at last week's caucuses who will commit to supporting specific candidates at the county assembly "is not inclusive."

There are more than 94,000 Democrats on Boulder County's voter registration rolls, Lopez noted, and fewer than 1,600 attended the county party's March 6 caucuses. On March 24, fewer than 900 delegates will participate in the county assembly, he said.

That, Lopez said, amounts to "a tiny, tiny slice of the Democratic Party making the decision of who's going to be on the ballot."

Other Democratic candidates for the District 1 county commissioner's seat are Elise Jones, a Boulder resident who's director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, and Garry Sanfacon, a Nederland-area resident who manages Boulder County government's Fourmile Canyon Fire recovery effort.

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A candidate striving to achieve a primary election ballot spot through the county assembly must get at least 30 percent of delegate votes -- something Lopez said appeared unlikely, in his case, after he examined the District 1 commissioner candidate preferences stated by the county assembly delegates selected in last week's caucuses.

Lopez said many of his supporters were unable to attend the two-hour-long caucuses because it was a school night, and many of those who did turned out not to be able to attend the March 24 assembly because it's the start of the Boulder Valley School District's spring break. He suggested that the caucuses were dominated by "party insiders" and predicted the assembly would be, as well.

Lopez said delegates' stated candidate preferences in the official reports from the county's precinct caucuses indicated that Sanfacon and Jones, however, should have "no problem" meeting the 30 percent threshold to advance from the county assembly to the primary ballot.

"I'm sure they'll be on," Lopez said, but he's going the petition route in an attempt to continue the three-way race for the District 1 county board seat and to let June's primary-election voters decide who'll be the Democratic Party's standard-bearer in November's general election for the seat.

"I'd love to see all three candidates on the primary ballot," Lopez said.

Lopez, who's been circulating petitions since early February in the event he'd decide to bypass the county assembly, said he needs about 4,100 registered Boulder County Democrats' signatures and has to turn them in by April 2 to achieve a primary ballot spot.

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